Case XX Minni Copperlock

O

old indian

Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
2
I have a Case XX Mini Copperlock and have had some discussion about the year the knife was made. According to the book "Collecting Case Knives Identification and Price Guide" by Steve Pfeiffer and The Case Dating System on page 16 of the book the first long tail C tang stamp was used from mid 1993 through 1999. My confusion is that is only 7 years so does that mean that a knife made in 1999 would have 7 stars? because there is a photo of the long tail C tang stamp with 10 stars. Anyways I have a mini copperlock that has one star on it out next to the A in USA and to me that would mean the knife is a 1994 but I have been told the Mini copperlock was not made then and my knife is a 1999. I do not have the original box to look at and have looked at different knives on Ebay to see what years and how many stars the min copperlock has but none are consistent and some have such blurry photo's so I am hoping some one can give me a better understanding of the mini copperlock. I have many other case knives and have not ran across this problem. I will try and figure out how to post a photo
 
Howdy,
As a registered user, you can post pictures by uploading them to a web hosting site. I favor photobucket, myself. It's free and reasonably easy. If the site provides IMG codes, you can copy the IMG code and paste it into your post. If the site does not provide IMG codes, copy the web address of the picture and paste it into your post, wrapped in BBS code, like this:
 
And by the way, welcome to BladeForums.
 
I believe in every instance, 1 star means made in the year ending in nine, 2 stars=year ending in 8, 3 stars=year ending in 7, etc. I do not know of any instances where it would be any different, ever since the ten stars first appeared in 1970, exception being 1990-1993 when there were no stars and the actual year was struck on the tang. Those were the Jim Parker years, if I remember correctly. Currently a new decade begins with 5 stars and 5 X's. So, the 1993 should have had 7 stars. You can verify this on the Case XX website under tang stamps, case college. ;)
 
Hi Old Indian...welcome to the forum.
Your knife is a 1999 and Primble is correct about the 1993 having 7 stars/dots. Case's website shows their 1993-99 tang stamp starting with 7 dots. There should not be any 8, 9 or 10 dotted knives in the 90's. It might be possible that some knives in the transitional year 1993 could be either dated or dotted.
 
For the full listing of tang stamps on the Case web site:

http://www.wrcase.com/case_college/tang_stamps/

Find the one that looks the most like yours, and click on it for an exploded view that shows the individual years. They only used dots prior to 2000. If yours has X's or X's and dots, then it is from 2000 or later.

The full-sized Copperlock was introduced in 1997. I have seen Mini Copperlocks listed for sale described as being dated 1998, which would have had 2 dots. The 1999 would have had one dot.

The next year that would have only had one symbol (an X) would be the 2009.
 
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